at the western edge of praia da brisa is the área de proteção ambiental das brisas (mata do casqueiro), a park created in 1992 to preserve the local flora and fauna. it is one of the last unspoiled sandbank areas in rio de janeiro, and extends through several  habitat types - beach, sandbank swamp, salt marsh vegetation, and even rainforest. the flora develops on the sandbanks dunes under marine influence.  

this park is of particular historical and archeological significance as it contains 'sambaquis' (shell-mounds) - ancient deposits formed by shells, kitchenware, utensils, and skeletons piled up by the populations which inhabited the coastal area in prehistoric times and then petrified by a natural calcification process.